Canyon Thunder

My husband and I really enjoy going camping in our Sunset Trail travel trailer that we bought from you guys last year.  Our Pug Winston likes it too!  Actually, he thinks it’s his!  lol

This spring we were camping in the Big Thompson canyon near Colorado Springs.  It was a super time mostly because it was during the week and we almost had the entire canyon to ourselves. Frank and I are in real estate sales, so we work the weekends and take off on Tuesdays & Wednesdays.

After the sun went down we enjoyed sitting outside our Sunset Trail counting satellites as they passed over the canyon.  Yes the air is so clear, you can actually see satellites without a telescope.  They look like stars except they are moving, that’s how you identify them.

After we retired for the evening, both of us fell into a sound sleep.  There is a double-entendre here; you’ll understand it later in the story. 

Later that night I awoke to a rumble of thunder, and was surprised because there wasn’t any rain in the forecast.  I sat up in bed and heard more rumbling, so I woke Frank up, and asked him to check outside to see if we needed to bring anything in before the rain started.  As soon as Frank stepped out of the trailer, he screamed, “honey get out here”!  When I exited through the door, I could see pretty well by the moonlight and it looked like there was smoke coming down the cliff on the other side of the river.

It was a small landslide.  Then near the top of the cliff wall, the sound of thunder was once again audible.  Frank grabbed my hand and jerked me the rest of the way out of our Sunset Trail and headed away from the river toward the main road.  After about 4 or 5 seconds of running, the sound coming from the landslide was almost deafening. We both stopped and turned around to see a boulder the size of a VW beetle came crashing down the Cliffside and landed into the Big Thompson River. 

The boulder must have hit in a deep part of the river because the splash actually came all the way over the river and into the campground.  We both just stood there staring at the spot on the water where the boulder hit, it was completely under water.  It was a good thing that the kayakers we saw earlier that evening didn’t decide to do nighttime float down the river.

So when you’re in canyon country, don’t assume rumble sounds are always thunder, because sometimes the mountain will shed loose boulders.

You can be sure that the next time we decide to go camping with our Sunset Trail travel trailer in the Big Thompson Canyon, we’ll choose a campsite a little farther from the river!

This is a really cool blog spot.  Thanks for creating it!

Tina/Santa Fe